SMITH: “WE MARCH ON”

15 December 2012

Mitchell Jones

Boro Player spoke to a clearly disappointed Gary Smith after he watched his side lose a lead, and the game, at the Lamex Stadium.

Smith described himself as “bitterly disappointed” with the result and continued “Especially after going 1-0 up, the first half was very tight but I honestly thought that it’d be the side that made the breakthrough first that were going to see the three points come towards them.”

Trying to pin-point just what went wrong after Robin Shroot’s opener, the manager identified “one or two poor choices in and around our own box, some disappointing distribution from Steve [Arnold] and a very fortunate second goal from Crawley”.

Gary explained that the first half was a bit of a stalemate with two sides set up in a similar way, and continued “The key was going to be whoever utilised their more creative players in the best fashion – I thought the way Robin [Shroot] applied himself in the second half was the difference and of course the goal got us in front. From that point on for us, it just didn’t look like it flowed well and we looked edgy – I’ve seen that many times before, we all have, and then goal, which was hugely avoidable, really got them back on track.”

Despite a huge deflection beating Steve Arnold for Crawley’s second goal, Smith said that the finger can also be pointed at “not enough pressure quick enough towards the edge of the box” but also described it as “one of those goals that you don’t see too often”.